Systemic granulomatous disease in Brazilian cattle grazing pasture containing vetch (Vicia spp)

Vetch associated disease (hairy vetch poisoning) was observed in 8 herds of dairy cows in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil. In the pasture where 4 of these 8 herds were, Vicia villosa was the only vetch species represented, while cattle in the remaining 4 herds had access to both V villosa and V sativa but with large predominance of the former. Observed clinical signs included fever, dramatic drop in milk yield, thickening and wrinkling of the skin with multifocal plaques of alopecia, pruritus, conjunctivitis, nasal and ocular serous discharge, loss of weight and diarrhea. The mean morbidity in the 8 affected herds, representing 219 cattle, was 11.1% and the mortality was 100%. The duration of the clinical disease varied from 10 to 30 d. Gross lesions consisted of multifocal to coalescing grey-white soft to moderately firm nodules which infiltrated several organs, but were particularly prominent in lymph nodes, adrenal, renal cortex, spleen, liver, and myocardium. Microscopically the lesions consisted of extensive cellular infiltration composed of variable proportions of epithelioid macrophages, lymphocytes, plasma cells, and multinucleated giant cells; variable numbers of eosinophils were present in the inflammatory foci of several organs, but they were more prominent in the myocardium.